


Risky Business

by Asynca



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: F/F, Hijinks & Shenanigans, but there's no tag for it and I'm LAZY, taelia fordragon/tess greymane - Freeform, this is taelia/tess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:22:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25356187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asynca/pseuds/Asynca
Summary: Taelia spots Princess Greymane sneaking into Boralus, and drags Flynn along with her to find out what she's up to.
Relationships: Taelia Fordragon/Tess Greymane
Comments: 19
Kudos: 48





	Risky Business

It wasn’t unusual to see shady folks in the Boralus docks. In fact, it would have been rather more unusual to _not_ see all sorts of suspicious people milling about. By now, Taelia knew most of the locals: Billy the dock’s best pickpocket, Jenny the Giant who would be able to procure whatever bizarre item or creature you wanted to buy (and despite being clearly Vrykul, was _definitely not a Vrykul!_ ) , Sadie Tempest who the sailors all called ‘Sadie Temptress’ because she lured all the newcomers and their purses to her pleasure house, and finally Red-cheeked Roger whose cheeks were most notably _not_ red but who hung around with very stern-looking women and (it wasn’t until Taelia was older that she realised what his name _actually_ referred to).

However, since all those new Eastern Kingdom trade agreements had been signed, there were far more ships docking, and more ships meant more shadowy figures slipping into Boralus, off to whatever end they sought. It certainly made the docks more interesting, Taelia decided, holding the tail of Flynn’s coat for him as he tried to work a very dubious red stain out of it.

The ship that had docked nearby them today was _particularly_ interesting. Firstly, it had an Alliance crest, but the face of the lion was all wonky. It was so poor that looked perhaps like one of the sailors had their 8-year old child paint their impression of an Alliance crest. Secondly, none of the sailors wore any semblance of an Alliance navy uniform. The captain was definitely some sort of golden-eyed elf (no matter how he tried to hide his ears), and everything about the ship was as fishy as a Tuskarr.

None so much as the very pretty lady—she was _definitely_ a lady, despite how clearly she’d tried to hide that fact by wrapping her pampered body in rugged leathers—who strode across the catwalk like she owned the ship, made the bloody great leap at the end as if she made bloody great leaps all the time, and greeted two men Taelia didn’t recognise on the docks.

She had heavy, dark features, but she wasn’t an Ashvane. Taelia had no idea who she was.

Flynn would, though. She elbowed him and nodded towards the lady. “Who’s Miss Eyebrows over there?”

Flynn stopped muttering under his breath at the stain and glanced up over his coat. It only took him a second. “That would be the Princess of Gilneas,” he said as if it was the most normal, ordinary thing ever that the Princess of Gilneas was sneaking around Boralus dressed in leather.

Taelia’s own eyebrows tipped her hairline. “Tess Greymane?” She looked at Flynn for clarification, and again he nodded like it wasn’t completely mad. Taelia felt like she might be. “Right-o,” she said, looking back the Princess. “Tess Greymane, just hanging around the docks as if she’s _not_ the crown princess of Gilneas.”

“To be fair, it’s not as if she can hang around Gilneas.”

Taelia winced. “Ouch. But good point.”

Just as Taelia was going to probe Flynn for whatever else he knew about this Gilnean Princess, the lady herself followed her two suspicious compatriots back to the thick stone wall of the gate and up a flight of horribly rickety stairs. “She’s going somewhere.”

“Well it certainly beats standing around all evening,” Flynn began, but Taelia had already dropped the tail of his coat and hopped off the bunker wall, heading towards those stairs.

“Tae!” Flynn was calling behind her, in the voice he used when he was trying to be stern with her. “Tae. We are _not_ following her.”

She ignored him, waiting for the Princess to make it to the top of the stairs and out onto the walkway before she attempted the stairs herself. “Where do you think she’s going?”

Flynn let out a deep sigh. “Oh, gods,” he said mostly to himself. “We _are_ following her.”

“Just to see what going on,” Taelia promised him. “Do you think she’ll go to the keep?”

“I think I’ll end up in the dungeons of it again unless we stop following her.”

Taelia scoffed. Lady Katherine wouldn’t lock him up again. Not after everything that happened with Lady Jaina. “Nonsense. Nothing’s going to happen to us. Come on.” After the Princess disappeared at the top, Taelia put one foot on the ill-kept staircase to test it. It _groaned_ , and lot more loudly than it had for the Princess. “Oh well, if it can hold those three people at once, it can hold me, armour and all,” she decided, hoping those weren’t her last words.

They weren’t, but the racket that the staircase made conveyed its preference for slight people wearing leather over Taelia with her mace and plate armour. Behind her, Flynn was suffering almost as loudly as the staircase. “Step a little more heavily, Tae! I don’t think they can quite hear you in Argus yet.”

She ignored him. “If she’s not off to the keep, why is she here, do you think? And why sneak in?” At the head of the stairs, she peeked over the top to make sure the Princess and her ‘friends’ were far enough ahead on the raised walkway not to notice her, and then heaved herself out onto it before she lost sight of them.

They rounded the side of a closed and boarded shopfront, heading in the direction of Hook Point. Taelia frowned. Hook Point was a rough area, really bloody rough. What was a princess doing hanging heading there with _this_ lot?

Flynn climbed up after her, still threading his other arm into his coat. “Let me guess,” he said, at Taelia’s deep frown, “she’s off into Hook Point.”

Taelia nodded bleakly.

He looked altogether too calm for it to have been a surprise. “Oh, well,” he said, clapping his hands together as if to finish a discussion. “I suppose that’s it then: the princess enjoys spending time with petty criminals. Mystery solved! Let’s go drop my coat off at the washhouse and then get a bite to eat.”

She shot him a tired look, and then headed off in the direction their enigmatic princess had disappeared in. She could hear Flynn groaning about it behind her, but if anything it just egged her on. After all, if even _Flynn_ didn’t want to poke about in whatever the princess was doing, it was probably even more important that she get to the bottom of it!

“I’m not going to just leave it, Flynn,” she whispered over her shoulder as she turned into the alleyway. “Let’s just follow at a safe distance and see what the deal is. If we’re careful, we can do it without running into—” As she rounded the corner, the absence of light made her realise the alley was blocked. It wasn’t until she looked up into a pair of steely brown eyes with thick lashes that she realised another step or two and she’d have faceplanted a woman’s chest. “—her.”

“Hello, Taelia.”

Because Taelia was still reeling from nearly banging right into someone, it took her far longer than it should have to realise it was the princess.

Her heart practically stopped.

Flynn was still muttering to himself as he came rushing around the corner and slammed directly into Taelia’s back, which threw her stumbling forwards. Once again, she once she had one hell of a time _not_ smashing directly into those—well. The princess’s chest. She managed not to just in time.

 _Not that falling into those would be that unpleasant an experience,_ Taelia found herself reflecting in the midst of an adrenal haze. Princess Greymane’s chest actually looked rather comfortable. Especially in all that tight leather.

“Close one!” Flynn recovered somewhat sooner than Taelia, and, as he always did, tried to laugh it off. Her sounded more nervous than usual. “Well, well, well, Princess!” he said, taking Taelia by the pauldron and standing her properly upright again. “What a pleasant surprise! What brings you to Boralus?”

Princess Greymane had one shoulder leant casually against the side wall of the shop, one ankle crossed over the other and her arms crossed as well. She didn’t look angry exactly, but she _did_ look very unimpressed by Flynn. “Why don’t _you_ tell _me_?” she said at the very bottom register of her voice.

Flynn laughed again. His voice, by comparison, was surprisingly high-pitched. “Well, we were just about to ask you!” he assured her. “My, eh, associate—”

“You mean Taelia,” Princess Greymane interrupted him smoothly.

Taelia felt her ears blush red at the correction. She wasn’t sure why the princess had done it, but it felt like a big compliment.

“Yes! Yes. Taelia,” Flynn corrected himself, “was just wandering what you’re up to about these parts and if you’d be visiting the keep.”

“And you were planning on directly asking me,” she said flatly, locking eyes with Flynn, unblinking.

Beats of sweat were visible on Flynn’s forehead. “Well, not me! Of course not me. I’m not a member of court after all. Now, _Taelia,_ on the other hand, I mean, technically she’s a member of court? The Fordragons were very important people in the old Kingdom, you know. Members of Lordaeron court after all, back in the old times. You know, before the…” He paused, realising everyone was staring at him. “Before the…” He swallowed, abandoning that line of chatter and forcing a bright smile. “Anyway! Who’s up for a few rounds of ale at the Snugg Harbour Inn?”

A knife whizzed through the air and buried itself hit-deep in the wooden awning beside him.

His smile thinned. “Right. Right. Maybe another time.” He finally shut up.

Princess Greymane pushed off the wall to stand. To Taelia’s horror—was it horror?—she began walking a slow circle around Taelia. Gosh, she was tall. Tall, and very un-Princess-like, except for the whole ‘your life is at my whim’-way of addressing them she had. She had nice hair, though.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Princess Greymane said somewhat cryptically.

Against Taelia’s better judgment, she found herself saying, “All good things, I hope.”

The princess stopped for a moment behind her. There was a touch of amusement in her voice when she replied, “Actually, yes.” She paused. “Although I must admit when I heard ‘young noble squire’, it painted quite a different picture.”

“Scrawny and pampered, you mean?”

“Exactly.” Again, there was a smile in her voice. Taelia wished she could see it, but the princess was still behind her. When she spoke again, it was so close to Taelia’s ear that Taelia’s breath caught in her throat. “I much prefer the reality.”

Taelia’s lip’s parted. She was as sure her eyes were as wide as saucers.

The moment was quickly over. Princess Greymane finished the circle around her and made as if to continue down the alley way with her two shadowy counterparts. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you two, but I’m actually just here on a social call,” she said. “But I’m sure you can _imagine_ it’s horribly exciting and criminal.” Her voice darkened. “As long as you don’t breathe a word to _anyone_ about it.” She locked eyes with Flynn again.

“Done and done,” Flynn said, practically saluting her. “Never saw you. Don’t even know who you are.”

She turned her attention to Taelia. “A pleasure meeting you, Taelia,” she said, making eye contact with her. “I hope to see you in court this summer.”

Taelia’s found herself completely tongue-tied. She watched the three of them turn and move along the alley way, disappearing around the other side of the ship.

Behind her, Flynn exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath and laughed. He sounded relieved. “By the _seven seas_ that was close! I thought she was going to julienne us like a spring salad. My entire life was flashing before me.”

Suddenly, Taelia had more important things to do than listen to Flynn celebrating not being murdered right now. She grabbed him, rushing back towards the stairs. “Come on!”

He yelped. “Good gods, Tae, where are you dragging me _now_?”

“The tailor’s,” she said, practically throwing him down the stairs. He was like a cat anyway; he always landed on his feet.

He didn’t even stumble. “To fix my coat?”

“No. To get me a dress made,” Taelia said. She needed to know much more about this Princess Greymane character, _much_ more. And the sooner, the better.


End file.
